Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Dag Maats.

Glo dat almal veilig aangekom het by hulle huise. Ek wil vir ieder en elk bedank vir n fantastiese naweek. Glo almal het dit soveel geniet soos ek en my gesin.

Ek het al n paar groepe met so naweek aangebied, en nog geen een so baja geniet nie. Niemand was in kompetisie met mekaar nie, en almal het gehelp wanneer daar probleme was. Die Patrol forum se mense is goeie en opregte mense.

Nogmaals baja dankie aan almal wat die moeite gedoen het om so ver te ry. Ons sal die sandry n vaste datum gee elke jaar. Daar ks alreeds n roete in beplanning vir volgende jaar April. Dit is vir die paasnaweek, wat ons die Molopo wil gaan ry. Ek hou julle op hoogte van dit.

Groete

Uit eindelik terug by die huis. Wil net vir almal baie dankie se. Dit was fantasties gewees.

Ek het hele klomp fotos en videos, maar sal eers van die kamera moet aflaai. Sal 'n paar hier pos, en die res op dropbox gooi met link soontoe.

Lekker dag almal.

Ian

Hey guys - more feedback please...

Chris,

Trip was fantastic, although it started off on a bad note. My wife was attacked by three thugs in Kuruman on the way down. I fought them off and got her into the car. Cellphone stolen, but guys were arrested by the police. All I really care about is the safety of my family, and we're all fine. In other words, it worked out OK.

We thought we were staying at Boegoebergdam (on the other side of the river). When we realised our mistake, we turned around to get to the other side, and burst a tyre on the caravan. Issues with the wheel studs on the spare (and the fact that my brother in law recently decided to put lock nuts on all wheels but never provided me with the "key") meant we were stranded next to the road for a few hours whilst we sorted the stuff out. In the end, we were under way again at 19h00, but decided to overnight at Groblershoop.

We replaced the tyre in Groblershoop on Friday morning, and got to Trans Boegoe at about 11h00. In other words, I missed the first day's drive.

On Saturday, I joined the group for the drive. Deflated to 0.5 (it's the lowest I've ever run my tyres - it looked completely wrong), and headed into the dunes. Not really sure what else I can say - point the vehicle at the dune, and gun it. I'm sure the guys who did both days can make more comments. All in all, I'm impressed with my vehicle. Whilst the 4.5 coped well, it is amazing to see how much better the 4.8's (and Tommie's 7 litre monster) performed.

I think pictures say things much better than I can explain (despite the fact that one does not get the exact impression of how steep and high some of the dunes really are). I will see if I can get the stuff downloaded, and post some pictures this evening.

Thanks for the feedback
How did the diesel guys do?

Chris,

I believe there was just one diesel there - Stefan's.

He only rode the first day, and I only drove on the second, so I didn't get the opportunity to see how the diesel did in the dunes. From the feedback I heard on Friday evening, it sounded as if the 3L diesel battled a little in the dunes. I didn't personally witness it, so I cannot comment (although I'd love to... )

Ian

The last two times I passed through Kuruman, the fuel station stops appeared very crowded and dodgy to me.
In fact on the 2012 trip with the Nissan club, Rod Crompton and his wife joined us with his 4.2 GQ. His wife lost a cell phone there as well!

Hay where are the pics, all I got is a 30 second video from Tinus that looked like the mine dumps in JHB!!!!

Yeah in the dunes the diesels will struggle to do well. The petrols will eat the dunes for breakfast. One has to really punish our diesels to get up some dunes.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune in Kuruman, Ian !!! damn thats a %$##% way to start off a journey !! I hope your wife and you take this in your stride mentally. Its always a good idea to see a trauma councillor when something like this happens, or both of you MUST talk the scenario out a good few times, even with each other !! It will definitively help the subconscious work through the trauma.

I found Kuruman a really scary town when I passed through there in December 2014. Seemed very crowded and hostile.

I thought there was actually relatively little difference between the different engines although the 4.8 is obviously the best standard Patrol engine for this job (except for Yster), and one needs a huge increase in power to make a lot of difference in distance travelled. In a couple of days I will post pictures showing most of the cars at their highest point on the challenge dune at Waterford, but probably there was only about 20m difference between where I stopped and where most of the 4.8's stopped, and probably only half that between me and Stefan. It was also obvious that weight makes a lot of difference, the cars without roof racks and fridges and drawer systems outperforming the others.

I also think the auto box does better, although Abri made up for it to some extent by being clever and determined.

I must be honest, the extent and size of the Boegoeberg took me by surprise! Really stunning landscape.
Some guys were really worried about what their tires looked like at 0.5 bar. This was Etienne's: At the end of the second day, we re-inflated before actually leaving the dune field, and it was immediately evident just how much difference it made!

Also, despite everybody running at around 0.5 bar, sometimes down to 0.4 bar, only one tire de-beaded, and that's only because Tinus tried a crop circle. I saw no evidence that the strong-sidewall tires (BF's and Cooper STT's) de-bead any easier than the others.